Getting Back to Business with EDGE 2022: Market Survey Results and Report

Getting Back to Business with EDGE 2022: Market Survey Results and Report

This represents a market study, trends report, and survey that includes feedback, executive insights, market direction and market intelligence.

The study included a survey with 5,012 business workers and 2,736 IT leaders and buyers. Respondent base included a cross section across size of business and industry, job function/title, department, and zip code. In addition, the respondent base could be part of a one location business or one with multiple locations.

The edge computing survey and report was a collaborative effort between industry-leading analyst firms. The primary sponsor of this research was Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Key topics include edge computing use cases and applications, priorities and investment areas, pandemic impact, and plans this year.

Select Research Findings:
• Nearly 50% of overall respondents have never heard of digital twins
• Security is the top concern for 2,736 technology decision makers surveyed
• 78% of respondents see 5G being used or considered for varying applications/use cases in their business
• Connecting people remotely to others (patients, customers, buyers) is a key use case for edge computing
• Over 57% overall of those surveyed indicating that their organizations are exploring and considering using private wireless for their business
• The combination of edge computing, AI and IoT has the potential to dramatically accelerate the benefits of digital transformation, particularly with mid-sized business, corporations and government
• Nearly 35% of all overall respondents claimed to have never heard of edge computing with 20.6% feeling only slightly aware of it. However, midsize and enterprise organizations claimed to have a greater familiarity with edge computing.

Traditional Centralized Cloud vs. Edge Computing
While cloud computing in its initial form represents centralized computational resources, edge computing architecture allows for higher performance distributed edge applications by allowing endpoint devices to offload workloads and to edge compute resources located in proximity. This is important for specific use cases and applications, which we explore in a later section.

At its core, cloud computing remains true to its roots: “Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centers and servers, one can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis” (Amazon). However, there is a need for enterprise and industrial verticals to enjoy cloud-based 'as a service' business models in a manner in which computing is not by necessity centralized.

The emergence of bandwidth intensive, latency sensitive applications has given rise to the need for even greater flexibility and performance. Enterprise apps, such as autonomous vehicles and UAVs, and industrial solutions, such as factory optimization and cloud robotics, have high throughput requirements.

Edge computing brings about massive business transformation opportunities across three primary business segments:
1. General Enterprise (Non-Industrial): This group of industries includes all industries except for the industrial and public sector (i.e. Healthcare, Retail, Hospitality, Communications, Professional Services, General Services, Finance, Real Estate, and others).
2. Industrial: This group of vertical markets includes oil/gas/energy, utilities, manufacturing, process plants, heavy machinery, mining, chemicals, construction, and hazardous materials.
3. Public Sector: This group includes federal (defense and civilian) government, state government, local government including public safety (law enforcement, emergency management, and fire safety), K-12 education and higher education.

Automation will be the leading driver due to key trends and business indicators including the skills gap of the overall workforce (and availability), the need to scale, and the continued push to advance business operations and enhance customer experiences.

Report Benefits:
Survey findings and report will help the reader understand the edge computing market and identify end-users and tech decision-makers opinions and perspectives with respect to key topics with a focus on edge computing, edge analytics, fixed/private wireless, use cases, business apps, and other leading topics that impact growth, adoption, scaling and budgets.

Survey and report benefits include:
• Support strategic planning, sales & marketing
• Gain latest trends and insights
• Hear feedback from the business workforce
• Gather insights from buyers and decision-makers
• Explore use cases and business value drivers
• Learn about related and emerging technologies
• Understand awareness and buying habits/trends
• Explore recommendations & business plans
• Leverage insights for business development and partnerships

Please note: the online download version of this report is for a global site license.